The Case Interviewing Companion

Agenda Why Case Questions? General Tips & Marketing Knowledge What Types of Questions Will I Encounter? New Product Launch Pricing New Competitor / Private Label Declining Sales

Why case questions? questions provide companies an opportunity to evaluate your… Strategic thinking / analytical skills Creativity General understanding of marketing principles Communication skills Ability to think on your feet Case

General Tips There is no “right” answer - but there are some frameworks that you can use Ask questions / state assumptions Follow the 3 “C’s” – Clear, Concise, Complete Go beyond the “textbook” answers Be able to explain why/how you came to your answer Think before you speak Key success factors are good marketing intuition, quick thinking, creativity and preparation!

General Marketing Knowledge Best ways to prepare: Read industry magazines and books (Ad Age & BrandWeek) Pay attention to advertising (tv & magazines) Store visits Current news – acquisitions, announcements, etc… Current trends (health, convenience, innovation) Product portfolio research – what categories is the company in? What’s their strategy? Pick one or two of the companies’ brands to think about specifically

General Marketing Knowledge Sample Questions: What’s a good/bad… new/existing… product/launch/promotion/ad/package… Why? Name the 3 most unique brands you can think of and tell me why you think they are unique. What’s an innovative product? What would you do to improve it? How would change the way brand XYZ is marketed? Give me 5 line extensions for brand XYZ. Give me another 5. When you walk down the supermarket aisle, what product jumps out and says “buy me” and why? What brand/color/car/animal would you be? Why? If you were going to design your own website/billboard, what would it look like? What would the title of your autobiography be?

New Product Launch Always start with the consumer. Do consumers want/need this product? Assess the opportunity (Think 5 Cs): Size of the market—How big is the consumer need? Competition—Have they entered? Are they likely to? Estimate of your market share-- Will this product have a fast adoption rate? Cost/ease of entry (capital investment and manufacturing, branding, distribution, company skills, etc…) Identify consumer segments, and choose your target (Think STP). Determine your positioning – choose one singular benefit that you intend to deliver to your target consumers. Positioning should be differentiating versus competition. Determine marketing strategy for new product (Think 4Ps) Price – set to reflect positioning (premium, popular, or value) and drive profit Product – which attributes to offer (flavor, size, etc.) – offer to what consumers Promotion – how will you create awareness and trial of product (advertising, coupons, sampling, product demos, etc.) Placement – where will consumers buy product (grocery, mass, club, convenience, internet, etc.) STP: segment, target, position 4 Cs: consumer, company, channel, competition 4 Ps: price, product, promotion, placement

New Product Launch Sample Questions: You are a BM at General Mills, and the company is considering launching a new chocolate-flavored Wheaties product. What factors/issues would you consider to make the decision to launch and subsequently introduce the product? You are charged with marketing a candy bar in the US which has been very successful in the UK. What things should you consider in bringing the product to the US market? You are the BM of Kingsford Charcoal and you are launching a new type of charcoal. Should you use the Kingsford brand name? What issues would you consider in making this decision? You are the BM at Nabisco and your boss stops by your office to tell you his kids were going crazy at a weekend picnic over beets. He wants to know if Nabisco should enter the beet market. Give me an example of a recent new product launch that was well done.

Pricing Positioning: Always choose a price that reflect your brand’s positioning. Premium vs Popular vs Value/Fighter brand (private label) Elasticity: Elasticity tells you how responsive/sensitive your brand’s sales are to changes in price. Use elasticity to analyze how pricing changes will impact your brand’s volume and profit. Elastic (commodity products) vs Inelastic (differentiated products) Cost Structure: Always consider costs when analyzing pricing. Clearly, revenues should exceed costs and the brand should be profitable. Profits = Revenue – Costs Pricing Strategies/Considerations: Keep your brand plan & goals in mind when determining your pricing strategy! Perceived customer value, markup, going rate/comparative, discriminatory, bundling

Pricing Sample Questions: You are launching a new product and you have to determine its pricing strategy. How will you do this? Each year you evaluate whether to increase the price of your product. How would you do this and what do you need to consider? You are the BM of Formula 409. Your boss tells you he wants to increase the profitability of your business via a price increase. Should you do it? You are the BM of Tide. Your boss asks you to evaluate a price decrease, as he wants to increase volume. Should you do it?

New Competitor How viable is this threat? Assess the threat to determine whether or not you need to defend: Does the new product meet a consumer need?—Will anyone buy this product? How strong is the competitor – will they spend to support the launch – are they smart marketers? Where will they take volume from – are they targeting you or your competitors? Should you decide it is necessary to defend, there are some strategies to consider (Think 4Ps): Reinforce equity with advertising/promotion – remind consumers why your product is better than new competitor – don’t give them a reason to try. Product upgrade to provide new benefit – never give consumers a product based reason to switch. Load consumers – provide price incentives so consumers will be stocked up with your product when a competitor launches. Track new competitor’s performance after launch to see if it is successful.

New Competitor Sample Questions: You are the BM of Fresh Step Cat Litter. You learn that 2 new competitors are entering your category: Arm & Hammer Cat Litter and EverFresh Activated Charcoal Cat Litter. What should you do? You are the BM of Kingsford Charcoal. Gas grill usage is substantially increasing which is causing charcoal usage to decline. What should you do?

New Competitor - Private Label Build your equity: Use advertising to communicate quality/image of branded products to consumers. Establish a point of difference versus private label—Customers must understand the enhanced value of the brand. Innovate: Increase product quality or innovate by introducing new flavors, scents or choices. Manage the price gap: Consider a price sensitivity analysis. Determine how much of a premium you can afford to charge before your brand starts losing volume to private label (in essence, what is the value of your brand to consumers). Introduce a value brand: Larger companies that have more than one brand competing in a given category could position one brand as a value brand to compete against the private label. This offers consumers a branded option at a lower price.

New Competitor - Private Label Sample Questions: You are the BM of SpaghettiOs, and you have learned that one of the major grocery chains has launched its own brand of kids canned pasta. What strategies should you consider to defend against this competition?

Declining Sales Is the decline driven by a general category decline or a share decline on my brand? These drivers lead to very different strategies for reversing the decline: Why is my category declining? Changing consumer needs/habits/trends (health), macroeconomic factors Why is my share declining? You changed something or your competitors changed something (new product substitute – ex. bleach usage declined when Tide w/ bleach was launched) If category is declining, determine strategy to increase category usage: Increase frequency – “brush after every meal instead of in the morning/evening” Use more per usage occasion – “for whiter whites use a full cup instead of half” New product uses - recipes, beauty care, odor, etc… Expand across categories If share is declining, determine why. Explore 4 Ps for yourself and your competitors: Price – Changes? Temporary or permanent? Reason – lower costs, inventory, steal share, etc? Product – Has the quality changed? Any new products/upgrades? SKU rationalization? Promotion – Have promos/advertising changed? Message? Placement – Have I lost distribution? Have competitors gained distribution?

Declining Sales Sample Questions: You have just been named BM of Pine Sol. Your sales are declining considerably. What questions should you ask to understand what is going on? What would you do to reverse the above decline? What would you do to reverse the above decline if you could not increase your promotional budget? You are the BM on a product whose sales have been flat for the last 5 years. However, the brand’s market share has been growing at about 3% a year. What is going on with the brand and what should you do about it?